In the last weeks before today’s runoff election in Mississippi pitting Sen. Thad Cochran (R ) against tea party-backed challenger Chris McDaniel, eleventh-hour campaign contributions have poured in at a furious rate, matched only by the efforts of outside groups joining the fray.

Six-term incumbent Cochran saw more of the same institutional and big business support he has relied on throughout the already hard-fought race. Since the June 3 primary, Cochran has received at least $780,000 in new contributions, in part thanks to a fundraiser hosted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). That one event rounded up at least $72,600 from the leadership PACs of fellow GOP senators.

In comparison, McDaniel, a state senator, has collected a relatively sparse $180,000 since the primary, but instead has benefited from some extraterritorial intervention. In the last week, outside groups spent about $900,000 in the race. While big chunks of that came from Cochran supporters — including $200,000 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, $120,000 from Mississippi Conservatives and $100,000 from Main Street Advocacy, which participated for the first time in this race — there were also a slew of first-time spenders among conservative outside groups, galvanized in part by the defeat on June 10 of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) by tea party-backed challenger Dave Brat.

Despite Cantor’s loss and full-throttle efforts by the Republican establishment to back Cochran, the last weeks of this race have amounted to an intensified version of its dynamic early on. Cochran, who has held the seat ever since another six-term veteran retired in 1978, had the incumbent’s advantage and fought hard to keep it. He has so far raised about $5.2 million, which is more than he’s collected in his last two races combined.

McDaniel has been largely favored by outside groups, which have spent a whopping $7.3 million to topple Cochran’s run for a seventh term; Club for Growth Action alone has spent more than $3.1 million to help McDaniel win. In comparison, his campaign has run on a relative pittance of about $1.7 million, but has had endorsements from Sarah Palin’s leadership PAC, SarahPAC and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.)’s political nonprofit, Patriot Voices PAC.

]]>https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/06/cochran-on-the-hot-seat-in-mississippi/feed/0Capital Eye Opener, Sept. 7: Bankers Prep Secret Spending, Jewelry Heir Funds Anti-Gay Marriage Adshttps://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/09/capital-eye-opener-september-7/
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/09/capital-eye-opener-september-7/#respondFri, 07 Sep 2012 11:00:28 +0000A few months back there was excitement over a new super PAC founded by bankers to target members of Congress -- it didn't really pan out. But a new organization created yesterday might do better -- it will collect money anonymously from big banks and target Senate races.

BANKERS PREPARE TO SPEND…ANONYMOUSLY: Earlier this year we reported on what appeared to be an attempt by a group of banks to form a super PAC, which they said would let them “carry a big stick” and convince lawmakers that they’d work to kick them out of office if need be. As it turns out, that effort was put together by a collection of smaller community banks whose professed goals (collecting many smaller donations from many community banks) could have been accomplished with a regular PAC. And, sure enough, the super PAC they founded hasn’t done a thing.

But critics’ concerns about that plan may not have been in vain. Yesterday, the American Bankers Association (the national trade association that represents all banks, but particularly big banks) voted to form a new 501(c)(4) group — a politically active nonprofit that can collect unlimited sums of cash to run politically-oriented advertisements, and, thanks to IRS rules about nonprofits, doesn’t have to disclose any of its donors.

According to Bloomberg, the purpose of the group will be to collect donations from the ABA’s member banks and then donate the money to super PACs that will attack or support various U.S. Senate candidates. While super PACs have to publicly disclose their donors, because the money will be coming from the 501(c)(4), the original source of the funds will remain anonymous.

Why go to the extra step of giving the money to a 501(c)(4) group and not just give directly to a super PAC? As we’ve seen recently, shareholders of big companies might take issue with large political donations from corporate coffers, and Wall Street’s somewhat diminished reputation these days might make politicians less enthusiastic about having big banks on their side. But pushing the money through 501(c)(4) organizations, which we’ve dubbed shadow money groups for their lack of disclosure, wipes away any negative connotations — for both the donors and the politicians who benefit.

JEWELRY HEIR BEHIND ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE AD: A conservative super PAC called Campaign for American Values released an ad yesterday attacking President Barack Obama on the issue of gay marriage. Judging by some commentary on the Internet, the ad may be most notable for the less-than-convincing job the actors are doing (see the ad for yourself below), but it does represent one of the first major outside group attacks on Obama on the issue of gay marriage.

Campaign for American Values is headed by Gary L. Bauer, a prominent conservative Christian activist, former presidential candidate and high-ranking official at the Department of Education under President Ronald Reagan — but who is putting up the cash for all this?

Horner is also the president of Premier Designs, a multi-level marketing jewelry company with a strong Christian ethos. The company was founded by his parents in the 1980s and has a non-profit arm that supports churches and missionary work.